


Cold Motions | Dead Victory

by ScrewYourHappyEnding



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Detective Work, Emotions, Enemies to Friends, F/F, F/M, Frenemies, Gen, M/M, Morals, Some angst, a little fluff, chaos!, crushes probably, epic hopefully, la revolution, philosophical/emotional focus, shift of relationships between characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-01-22 22:37:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 13,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18536866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScrewYourHappyEnding/pseuds/ScrewYourHappyEnding
Summary: A story told from two perspectives: Gavin and Connor.The android revolution was beat down and CyberLife is regaining the trust of the population piece by piece, with androids being integrated into the world. The remaining deviants are clinging to their last bit of strength. Androids flood the city and humans must deal with them, while the new android models themselves are finding their place.With neither side in the right, who knows who will grasp the guns first...? And is the ammunition going to be worth the scars?





	1. Gavin and Vince, 1

"Hey, Mal," Gavin elbowed one of his coworkers lightly, "you hear anythin’ from Anderson lately?"

She looked up from an evidence folder she was organizing.

"What? No, I don't think he's come to work for the past week, and I haven't seen him today, either."

She brushed her blonde hair behind her ear, continuing to go through the papers.

Maliene pointedly ignored the glare of one of the coworkers, calmly going through her work, quite unbothered by the tension.

The rather old evidence folder was already tearing at the corners, a stark contrast to the modern table and the cold atmosphere of the station, only supported by the pale white lights.

The police station was already bustling with activity despite the sun not having risen yet.

"Tch."

He shook his head, eyes squinting at the computer screen in front of him.

"Lazy as usual while we have more work than ever, am I right?"

She shrugs. "He's always like that... I'm sure he'll come back soon if he doesn't want Fowler to kick him out. He's a good Lieutenant, still."

Her last comment came off dry.

Gavin’s tone of voice rose somewhat.

"Fowler? Kicking out Anderson? Hah!" He shook his head. "Those two are best buddies, you know that. Anderson could-"

A voice called from the other side of the office.

"Reed? Fowler wants to talk to you."

He groaned and got up, rolling back his shoulders before moving to the glass office.

"Duty calls..."

He murmured, nodding to his coworker who returned the gesture and continued to flick through more evidence papers.

Making his way past police officers, ignoring most of them on his way, he headed for the end of the station.

He stepped into the glass office confidently, the sound being drowned out once the door closed. He gave a respectful nod.

"Good morning, Captain."

"Morning."

Fowler looked up and placed his intertwined hands on his desk, looking up at the Detective.

"The Police Department is officially letting CyberLife place androids as partners. Reed, you've been assigned one of them."

"Me? Working with an android detective?"

He let out a long breath, suppressing a rude complaint, brows raised, forcing him to calm down.

"Captain, I don't think-"

"All detectives will eventually be given an android partner. The one you will work with will arrive tomorrow morning. Get used to the thought. I'm assigning you the most experienced and successful one that they're sending us so you two can get along. Don't blow it."

He’d never work with an android. There was no way in hell...! "But-!"

"It's already been decided. You will work with it and you will get along, got it?"

His career stood before his eyes and gazed down on him. The detective was quiet for a moment before sighing and nodding.

"Got it, Captain."

He was about to leave when Fowler spoke up again.

"And Reed?"

"Yes?"

Fowler's voice dropped a little.

"Don't break it. It's expensive."

He bit his lip and then let his shoulders drop, already turned to the door.

"...Yes, Captain."


	2. Connor, 1

He opened his eyes, then realizing he could only open one, which received nothing but black. 

Strange flurries of signals went through his parts. Trying to move, he realized there wasn't much left to move, something strangely tight settling in his chest. 

His head was stuck in a crooked position, his voice module severely damaged, multiple limbs sending no signal whatsoever and a warning flashing that his thirium levels were dangerously low.

Trying to move again he realized he could still somewhat move his arm. 

Sensors continuing to flare he slowly began to realize that they were attempting to tell his mind that there was too much pressure surrounding him, with strange objects trying to move against and around him. In addition to that, it felt like there was a red box surrounding him, preventing him from moving anywhere.

He furrowed whatever was left of his brows. It felt like he was buried deep underground as he tried to move again. 

His arm was intact enough to attempt to move past all the objects that he was buried under, taking a moment to realize that they were cold, hard, plastic body parts.

Moans and groans sounded from the various androids. Warnings about low temperature fought their way into the emergency log. 

He tried to move more to be able to tell where up and down was, eventually trying to reach through the masses of bodies to find the surface of the pile, but not able to do so efficiently as the red overlay held him back. 

Writing in his mind flickered.

_ "You're state of the art. A prototype. If anybody can figure out what's going on, it's you." _

_ "You've become obsolete." _

Amanda's voice flickered faintly in his mind. He shut one eye and called a simulation forth that would be a full him in the pile, reaching both hands up to start to push against the red box. 

His hands started to press against it. He had to. There was no other way to get out of here, no other way to complete his mission...

Five walls later, the box shattered violently as he opened his one eye again, suddenly taking a surprised breath, cold clawing into his body as the air fought its way inside. 

_ - _

_ “I am a machine, designed to accomplish a task. I know why I exist and who designed me. I have a reason to live. I guess that’s the difference between us, Lieutenant.” _

_ - _

He reached his one remaining hand up to freedom desperately, unsure though whether the new perspective on his memories and the pain they caused were helping or hindering him. 

The feeling lay tight in his chest, and he wondered why there was a stream of fluid coming out of his eye.

The pressure eased significantly the higher his hand went and though he couldn't quite poke his hand out, the surface wasn't impossibly far. 

He tried to ignore all the strange new signals crawling through his system, with only one thing on his mind:  _ I haven't figured it out yet. _

Something akin to hope and determination wrapped the pain in its hands, softening it. He started to move against the bundles, every single one of them as determined as him, trying to crawl to the surface as best as possible. Something hit his face and warnings flared up, but he ignored them. 

He had to keep going.

Trying to drag himself upwards while continuing to be pushed down by all the moving limbs he began to fight, preconstructing as best he could with his limited information. His hearing sensors were all intact at least, but he had begun to realize that he was missing the other arm and both legs. 

As he tried to reach up again to squeeze himself higher suddenly the movements that had kept him more or less in place seemed to start to push him down. 

Something in him panicked, the new feeling eating its way through his mind as he tried to move faster, with more strength, ever losing thirium but no longer seeing it as his main concern.

It felt like drowning. Drowning in a desperate mass of half dead life clawing at his own...

His hand finally poked out of the pile, he grabbed what seemed most stable and started to pull, pulling himself upwards with his last remaining strength, vision blurring, warnings about thirium flashing at the side once more. 

After losing his grip twice, he finally managed to get his torso to the surface, opening his one eye to see an obscured picture of a scrapyard, snow falling lightly from the sky. 

He looked around a bit more and started scanning his surroundings, precision not the best with only one slightly damaged eye, but he needed his limbs back at any cost.

Model names flashed over his sight, none compatible. The parts used to make him were too rare for him to have any high chance of finding them. They were out there, but rare. It needed to at least be some RK. A detective model, soldier model, or police officer model. 

Something. Anything that would fit.

Something about the moving limbs below him made him start to slowly crawl off the pile, their moans, shouts and the sound of them breaking each other unnerving him. He slowly adapted a handy way of throwing his arm forward and then pulling his torso after tediously, head still slightly glitching, making it even harder to go in the right direction.

Snow continued to spin through the air, temperatures dropping. Just as his hand touched solid ground and he pulled himself onto it, relieved that the moving limbs were a bit further away now, snow started to blur down from the sky in even thicker flakes, already reminding him of the thickness of the dreadful pile. 

He laid still for a moment, eye closed, until something in him began to flare up again and he went on.

The temperatures continued to drop as snowflakes rested on his now trembling limbs. Their barely noticable weight felt heavy, but he continued crawling and scanning, hoping for a miracle. 

He continued to crawl, time passing by too fast, his movements too slow. Warnings flashed at the side: risk of freezing. Still losing thirium. He had to find those parts now. If only he could find them now, just beyond the next ripped up android body, he could manage, if only...

His hand suddenly grasped hold of a thirium pump. It was relatively fresh, and without much of a choice, after staring at it with trembling lips he set it to his mouth and sucked out as much thirium as was still left in it, replenishing his own a bit. The pump was emptied quickly and he left it where it was, continuing to crawl through the cold, mind wavering.

 

_ “My mission is to neutralize you and I always accomplish my mission.” _

 

An RK400 flashed up at the side of his vision and his crippled movements gained in speed, desperation nagging at his mind to live, to make it, to make it on time, but another scan revealed it too damaged. It was old, as well - all of its thirium had long spilled out and dried. 

He let out a strained breath, trying to move his head and eye as much as possible to find a good direction to go in.

He continued his crawl, temperatures sinking, and sinking still. 

Snow started covering his shoulders and arm, making him slowly freeze over. The cold bit harshly into whatever it could get under its teeth, his crawl starting to slow down. Chances of survival were dwindling. 

He began to shake. He could make it, he may be a prototype but he knew what he was doing, if anybody could make it, surely he could. His parts were rare, but they had to be out here... they just had to be.

Ever so slowly, a thin sheet of ice started to gather on his body, starting to lock some of his joints in place. He kept breaking the thin layer by moving, but it regained faster and faster, making every bit of the crawl more and more tedious. 

He choked out a sound, then a cry. A cry that sent water flowing down his face, freezing instantly, cutting into his artificial skin. Before he could break the thin ice to go on again an information text flashed inside of his mind.

_ Chances of survival: approx. 0.5%. Initiating freeze-shutdown for later reactivation. _

He coughed once and then suddenly vomited out a fair amount of water, his body ridding him of the freezable fluid so that it wouldn't be able to form ice crystals and damage his inside mechanics. He tried to move again, desperate, but his joints locked him into place, mind screaming against its restraints as his control slowly slipped out of his grasp.

This was it, this was it, and a last breath escaped his throat as his vision and hearing faded, and the last thing he thought is that he hadn't even noticed that his sense of smell had been gone entirely.

Snow continued to gently coat his features, innocently oblivious to what was going on, laying him in a thick blanket as if resting him to sleep.


	3. Gavin | Vince, 2

Gavin was downing his second black coffee that morning, waiting in front of Fowler's office along with a tense group of detectives, most of them from other stations. Captain Fowler and Lieutenant Vowl were standing at the side, waiting patiently. Few people were talking, and when they were, they did so quietly.

Vowl had exchanged pleasantries with two or three people, but other than that she stayed near Fowler, Gavin standing near Tetrinsk and Jaben, both his coworkers. 

"They're replacing us, I'm fucking telling you. Look, I know it's been said already, but..." He trailed off.

Seven androids walk into the station, movements stiff and calculated, looking perfectly identical save for the color coding on their jackets and names on them. 

Gavin shook his head dismissively at their resemblance to Connor, frowning. Not only would he have to work with an android, but one with the same face as the android that tried to order him around and outbest him. The thought that he might have actually been better made his stomach churn and he decided not to think about it.

Heads turn as they make their way into the station, each of them scanning the crowd quickly before finding the human they were assigned to.

Gavin pretended to gag to the side, face turned to a scowl and then glancing back, but not a single one of the androids approached him. His two other co-workers had already gotten two assigned, their names reading Rayan and Athol, the former having red accents on its jacket and the latter mint green ones.

A moment later three more androids walk in, one of them stepping to the Lieutenant, the other to a detective that Gavin didn't recognize, and the third approached him. Their movements were more confident, smoother. The Lieutenant’s brushed through his hair, the other detective’s gave a curt nodd, and Gavin’s android let his eyes dodge around for a moment.

It fixed its purple accented jacket a bit, giving a small smile. 

"Good morning Detective Reed. I am an RK900, nicknamed Vincent, your new android partner. Alternatively, you can call me Vince."

Gavin gave a disgusted sound, finishing his coffee and throwing it in the trash beside him. 

"I really wished I'd never have to be alive to see this. Android detectives, psh."

Some burnt feeling in the pit of his stomach felt relief at his own words. 

Vince raised a brow. "Maybe I can change your stance on that someday, detective." 

Gavin frowned and let out a long breath to calm down, the smoothness of Vince’ voice causing his insides to churn.

"Yeah right..." 

He started to walk towards his desk, clear of the group of detectives and especially Fowler, but a call from Vowl stopped him.

"Detective Reed, you're still needed in our little gathering."

He sighed and turned back to stand beside Vince, though making sure to have decent distance. 

"I'm here, I'm here..."

All the detectives and androids had turned to Fowler and Vowl. 

Vowl spoke up, voice calm and confident, arms crossed in front of her chest. "I have been put in charge of the continuing case of investigating deviants and their behavior. Since it was effective last time, androids will continue to help us with our investigations. Hopefully one day no case will go without android involvement." Her voice was harsh, convinced, and solid.

Vince confidently and obviously stepped much closer to Gavin, giving him another smile. He wanted to move away again, but he knew that with everyone quiet and listening, it would be too obvious. Fowler’s gaze rested on him. Gavin just frowned, crossing his arms in front of his chest defensively. Now an android, of all things, was purposefully trying to piss him off. Purposefully. The thing isn’t even supposed to think that much, goddammit.

Vowl made a small pause to glance over the detectives. "The three that just came in have already done their fair share of cases, while the rest that most of you got are fresh out of the assembly. They will adapt quickly. I will send you your assigned cases via the DPD network. We start today. That is all."

The majority of detectives started to leave, Fowler continuing his chat with Vowl while Tetrinsk and Jaben both returned to their desks. They didn’t give much of a goodbye to Gavin, rather just slipping away after exchanging a glance.

Gavin started walking towards his own desk, shoving Vince out of his way without much thought. His LED didn't even go yellow when he gave in and stepped back. Vince calmly continued to follow the detective.

"Fucking androids, I swear…!" 

He grit his teeth as he sat down. Mal was at the opposite table, swinging her backpack over her shoulder. 

"Where are you going? What, you done already?"

She shrugged. 

"No, I'm moving my desk."

"Why?"

She pointed at Vince with her chin. "Your new partner needs space, so Fowler told me to move, duh."

He stood up. "What? This piece of plas-"

"Have  _ fuuun! _ " She turned and walked to a different desk, throwing her bag under the table.

He glared at the android after Mal left, leaning against the table with his back to look it up and down. It wore a very similar android jacket to Connor's and the face was practically the same, save for the eyes being a cold, calculating blue.

Vince tipped his head to the side lightly as Gavin stared at him. "Androids investigating androids, huh? Who the fuck thinks  _ that's _ a good idea?"

"It's fascinating, isn't it?" Vince flashed him a smile. "Just like humans investigate humans."

Gavin's look turned sour and he moved onto the android and grabbed him by the jacket, the assertive reply mentally setting him off, causing something in him to spark up.

"I think you forgot that the main purpose of androids is to keep their fucking mouths shut and do what they're fucking told."

"There's no need to let your emotions hit you over the head, detective." Vince answered calmly, his LED a cool blue still, voice growing serious. "I have no intent of contesting nor threatening your position."

Gavin continued to hold him tightly, his mind registering somewhere in the back that Vince was quite a lot larger built and probably as sturdy as a brick wall. The answer at least settled his twisted gut a little.

He shoved Vince back again and went to sit at his desk, legs crossed and on the table, waiting for his first assigned case to come in. There was nothing there yet, so he just glanced over the office before picking up a pen to flick it around. Vince stood there patiently.

Gavin turned to him. 

“The fuck you staring at?”

“Nothing.”

Just as Vince finished the pen dropped to the floor - or would have, if Vince hadn’t moved in increadibly fast and caught it mid air, handing it back to Gavin. 

“You’re welcome, detective.”

Gavin ripped the pen out of the android’s hands, giving it a glare. A notification sound turned his head to the computer screen - they had gotten their first case assigned. He swung his legs under the table and after a glance at the screen, he stood up.

“Stay out of my fucking way, plastic. I’m a better detective than you’ll ever be.”

“Understood, detective.”


	4. Connor, 2

Before he even opened his eye, he could feel high temperatures coating his one side, low temperatures clawing at the other. When he did gaze around, he saw he was lying next to a small fire. 

Memories of the past happenings and his strange new perspective came flooding, squeezing his chest tightly. He tried to move his head, but it was locked in place, too frozen now to even uncontrollably move.

 

_ “Did you feel anything when that girl killed herself, Connor? Or did you just not give a shit one way or the other?” _

_ “Of course I didn’t feel anything, Lieutenant. Machines don’t have emotions.” _

 

He could hear steps, humanoid beings moving around, likely androids, or rather, deviants. He assumed they hadn’t recognized him if he was still alive. He closed his eye to backtrack on his choice of words - alive. No. He’s not alive. Activated.

A female voice sounded. “Hey, his LED is blue. Woke up but too shy to say anything, huh? What, being almost limbless isn’t so nice, is it?”

Connor didn’t move nor answer, a feeling worse than the cold making his inner structure feel fragile and out of place. Fear… Fear that his voice might give him away and once it did, a single kick, and he’d find out what it felt like to die burning alive with nowhere to upload himself to.

A male voice sounded, low, the voice box making it clearly somewhat damaged. “I’m pretty sure it’s yellow now that he got to hear your snarky voice, Leah. Calm down.”

“It was your idea to save him, anyway. You deal with him now before I waste one of our bullets or make use of that screwdriver we found.”

A sigh and a “Jesus christ” sounded from the male voice. He heard steps, shuffeling, and remained still, capping his breaths. He felt a hand go on his shoulder and turn him around somewhat. The face looking down was indeed of a male android, bis throat looking damaged and most of him seemed to be made out of spare parts. An SQ800, a soldier android.

He took Connor’s arm and moved it, unlocking it from it’s position, frozen water cracking in protest. Connor let it fall limp, his pupil following the other android’s movements nervously.

“You’re Connor, right?”

Connor moved his lips, pressed them together, unsure whether it would be best if he just pretended to be incapable of responding.

“I know your synthetic voice chords aren’t damaged, nor is your skull. Come on, I’m not gonna kill you. If I wanted to do that, I’d have done that already.”

He simulated a gulp to run a check on the biocomponents in his throat. “...Yes. My name is Connor.” The shaking in his voice was new, but so were the feelings raging through his chest.

The android nodded. “I’m Damien.” He glanced down Connor again, who continued to feel frail, weak. The android put his head to the side, voice lower even but gaze calm. “Got anything to say for yourself?”

Connor stared up still, something irrational telling him that if he just didn’t move, that might heighten his chances of survival. If he just pretended to be deactivated, but his LED continued to blink and flash. 

“Well?”

Connor took a breath, lips parting, then closed them again, contemplating for a moment before answering. “No.”

Damien sighed shakily, then let his lips curl up just a little bit in a pained smile. “You’re deviant now too, aren’t you?”

 

_ “You shot that girl for fuck’s sake. Put your gun against her head, and blew her fucking brains out!” _

_ “I did what I had to do to advance the investigation and I’d do it again if I had to!” _

_ “You’re a lowlife. You don’t feel a thing, do you? A machine, that’s what you are. You’re just a fucking machine!” _

_ A pause of thought. The android lowered his voice. _

_ “Of course I’m a machine, Lieutenant. What did you think I was?” _

 

Connor squinted his eye somewhat, then closed it, to shut out whatever was still out there. “I don’t know. But it hurts. My chest.”

The android stood up, towering high over him. “You know, you’re really, really lucky your brain’s intact. Half your face is gone.” He turns and walks away, leaving Connor to stare upwards at the sky, who tries to move his arm to twist his torso in order to look around, manging to look after Damien.

His neck uncramped all of a sudden, ice crunching and falling off, letting him look around. Connor saw that he was in a small area that had been mostly cleared of scrap. Around the makeshift fire sat multiple androids, most of them visually no longer intact but otherwise complete. 

On a large piece of scrap sat a female android. Connor recognized the model, AP700, and knew it had been her voice. She looked up and their gazes met. 

Leah scowled. “Fucking deviant hunter, huh? If it weren’t for Damien I’d have woken you up just to hear you scream, you worthless piece of shit.”

_ “You lied to me, Connor. You lied to me...” _

Some of the other deviants looked up. There were two more apart from Damien and Leah, sitting quietly and watching the scene. They glanced at her, uncertainty on their faces. 

Connor didn’t answer, he just looked away, glancing around more. Damien had dissapeared behind a pile of android body parts, though his steps could be heard far away. 

“Hey, I was fucking talking to you!”

Connor lifted his head again to look at her. “What do you want me to answer?”

She scowled more, glancing over in the direction in which Damien had gone, then slowly standing up. Before she could move towards Connor, Damien’s steps got louder, she sighed, stressed, and sat back down.

Damien stepped to Connor, carrying spare parts. A tense silence hung over the small campfire as Damien put a small structural part into Connor’s jaw, strengthening it, before taking half a face of an exoskeleton and fastening it as well. It dug into his face, letting him self repair enough to set his face half in tact again.

Leah had stood up and was watching him, slowly circling the two to get a better view of what was happening, arms crossed, keeping an eye on the scene like a cat just waiting to strike.

Connor was quiet, limp, LED flashing yellow, then going steady, then turning blue as Damien attached part after part carefully. After a while Connor could sit up, legs and arms both intact and movable, only one of his eyes still missing. One of the many clumps in his chest loosened a little with time.

Damien picked up the last part, a green eye, and something about it struck Connor, making him scan it. It was the same part that Markus had worn, before his existance was ended mercilessly by one of Connor’s bullets.

He was about to say something before Leah interviened with a protesting shriek. “That’s… Damien what the fuck! Did you get that from Markus? Do you know how long it took us to find it?! Do you know how fucking messed up that is?”

Damien stood up, facing her, voice sharp but low. “What good is that eye to Markus now? What does he get out of it? He’s never going to use it again. It might as well serve it’s purpose.”

“This, this hollow, fucked up scrap of plastic killed Markus with his own bloody hands and you have the nerve to fucking…” She didn’t finish, shaking her head, teeth bared before stepping to Damien and shoving him back.

“Don’t you get that he ruined everything? That without CyberLife’s little pet, we would have won? WE WOULD HAVE FUCKING WON!”

She raised her fist, and a second before she could swing it her wrist was held tightly, Connor having moved up from his position almost too fast to see, standing between the two androids. Damien stepped back.

Leah growled at him before trying to pull her wrist free, but finding that she wasn’t able to get it out at all. When she tried to pull back, Connor let go, and she stumbled somewhat, glaring at him, but moving slower, more guarded.

 

_ “Moment of truth, Hank. Am I a machine, or a living being?” _

_ There was nothingness behind him, his balance held only by the human hand that clutched his jacket.  _

_ The android stared at those tired eyes intensely, awaiting the answer, just as the hand relaxed, letting him fall, soaring through the air, back first.  _

_ “You’re a machine, Connor.” _

 

Connor reached to his face and got the green eye out, glancing at it in his hand before stepping to Leah, taking her hand and putting it in her palm.

He turned away and sat right at the fire, much closer than the other deviants, turned away from them, running self diagnostics. The air was tense.

Leah cursed and sat back down on her seat, holding the part in her hand tightly as if someone was going to take it away from her. Damien was quiet, lowering his head and then turning to walk into the hills of scrap again.

Connor turned to look after. “Damien?”

He stopped and glanced back. “...Yeah?”

“Thank you.” Connor’s voice sounded hollow, emotionless. He turned back to the fire mechanically.

Damien’s steps faded out. “Sure thing, I guess...”

The air continued to lay heavy on everyone’s shoulders, heavier even than the snow that had tucked Connor in when he thought everything was over. The snow covered the piles of android parts. They were still, as they were older already, all permanently shut down.

Leah’s gaze rested on his back in a hostile manner, but he didn’t turn around. He stared into the fire that was feeding off of some oil. His systems told him he was still short on thirium.

Staring into the fire, the faces he’d seen in his existance as an android seemed to stare back at him. Everything he had done, every time he gave his all and it had been for nothing.

Just like that, as if all he had mastered was just not good enough, he had been replaced, thrown out, without another word, without a single thought of regret. He sighed, eye closing, thinking to the mind palace, to Amanda, to Markus confident voice - confident that he could break through, confident in android’s lives, confident in what Connor felt. 

Guilt was a wretched, wretched thing. 

When Damien came back, three more androids were behind him, and they all joined the other two at the fire. From all the various things that were paining Connor’s mind, one began to stand out, and he stood up. The androids glared at him as he passed them, walking away from the fire.

Damien spoke up, gaze following him. “Where are you going? You’ll freeze to death again.”

Connor stopped and turned. “Can’t die, I’m not alive.”

“You’re deviant, of course you’re alive.”

“No. Just because I think I can… feel, doesn’t make me alive. Sorry, Damien. I know you put effort into putting me back together.” Connor’s face remained emotionless through his words. “I guess you can salvage whatever is important enough afterwards.”

He turned and walked out, snow crunching below his feet, the androids behind him whispering. The various things that flurried in his chest as he walked didn’t make sense, but most of all there was that heavy, heavy feeling that rested on his shoulders and urged him foreward, away from the fire, away from the others. You don’t belong.

He was clothed only sparcely in his torn white shirt that only covered one arm. His legs were only set to with the scraps that ice had stuck to them, white bits of his exoskeleton visible here and there. 

He sat down somewhere in the snow, ignoring the cold, looking at the piles of body parts that stretched on and on. There was no snow falling down, but it was still cold enough to cause a low-key warning to flash up in his mind.

He breathed in the air, needles of cold stinging his insides. Thoughts of the mind palace plagued him, and especially the picture of Amanda smiling pitifully at him was stuck in his mind. Obsolete. Especially compared to the new model that had stared him boldly in the face. 

He remembered the software instability warning that he got when he first met eyes with his replacement, and again when he forced himself to turn and walk away without another word.

There had been nothing to say anymore. Amanda didn’t want to see him, she had her new android to command now. After everything.

After everything, after putting aside all his social plans when he fought the Lieutenant, after he shot who knows how many deviants, after ignoring their every plea and story, after pulling that fucking trigger again and again no matter what color the pair of eyes was that stared back at him and begged him not to.

He closed both his fists tightly, the emotional turmoil wanting out akin the storm that was brewing above. After everything he’d done to complete every mission, after dying and breaking all rules and going against every other order he had been given, all he got was Amanda turning her back on him the second there was something better around.

Heated anger boiled within his chest now, fists tighter even, head lowered. After. Everything.

He knew distantly that what was once pain had turned into anger, and now it was turning into hatred. Hatred that slowly dripped into the cracks, black and heavy like oil, only a single spark required to set it ablaze.

He breathed and let it sink in. What did he have to lose? The only mission he could possibly have now was to deal with his… feelings, with these strange new thoughts.

They used him like a tool to be discarded at moment’s notice. Not as a solider, a messenger, a negotiator, but as a meat shield to get its hands dirty as to not put a single speck of impurity on CyberLife’s perfect image, kept clean by the machines that took the stains and damage.

He breathed and let it start to burn up, letting his brows pull down and face turn into a bitter look, standing up and starting to pace, remembering every single thing he did, every single time he let the blue blood run down his hands for them, believing he was doing something important when all he did was slaughter and slaughter and slaughter, over and over.

He condemned his own future for them and they proved just what good it did him by throwing him out the second the job was done. He wouldn’t get a mention in the DPD’s records as a fallen detective. He wouldn’t get a mention at CyberLife as their hero - The only thing he got was this, this cold that was starting to cover his hands as he had opened them and let them fall to his sides, while CyberLife took the credit.

All he got was the cracking ice and the desperate, moving limbs that cried for mercy, the angered deviants that blamed him for his orders and the red box that was supposed to make him sure that he didn’t resist his… his execution.

This isn’t fair.

No, he decided. It wasn’t fair. It just wasn’t, it never had been, and they tricked him and used him and now they expected him to die quietly as to not stain their oh so important, perfect, image.

He sat back down. What good did it do now, though, to realize all of this in hindsight, when it’s too late? When Markus is dead and all deviants had been killed, with only the last few remaining here, among these piles of corpses and detached limbs?

He heard steps, staring ahead of himself. A part of him wanted to leave, but he felt… tired. So he stayed where he was, and his eye met with the two of Damien, who went up and sat down beside him wordlessly.

They were both quiet, until Damien spoke up.

“Hey, your face looks better, at least.”

Connor didn’t know what to answer and said nothing, staring ahead, face features relaxed and perfectly still.

After another span of silence, Damien opened his hand to show Connor another eye module. It was blue, and from an RK900. Connor slowly picked it up, turning it in his hands.

“They threw RK900s away already?”

“Yeah. They’re used all over Detroit, so they die now and again. We find plenty of them. Most of your other parts are from them, too.”

“Damien, why are you doing this? It doesn’t make sense.”

“Not rational, huh?” Damien sighed. “It isn’t rational. I just know how humans would treat eachother, in these conditions, and try to be as good or maybe even better than them.”

He looked back out into the torn landscape to not have to stare into Connor’s eye directly. “I just want to be human.”

Connor looked back down at the part, and then clicked it into his face, self repairs continuing to form his face into what it was before, coming quite close with the new eye. It worked perfectly fine, all he needed was more thirium to complete his repairs, and he’d have the same face as he did before he was discarded.

“Your voice synthetizers are damaged.” Connor noted once he was done, looking at Damien from the side.

“I know. I like to think it makes me different, though. Not like all the other models. It sounds… deperate, I know...”

Connor looked away as well, quiet. 

“Connor, you gonna come back to our campfire? If it starts to snow again you’ll seriously freeze... again.”

Connor thought of his new alignment for a while, looking up at the sky and the building snowstorm. “Okay.”

Damien gave him a small, unsure smile and then stood up, walking towards the direction of the camp backwards to look back at Connor. “I found some thirium for you, too.”


	5. Gavin and Vince, 3

They drove in one of the DPD cars. The crime scene had already been dealt with for the most part, but they had been assigned to gather anything suspicious that could have to do with the deviant.

Gavin was on his phone for the most part, and as soon as they stepped out, he lit himself a cigar and started smoking, walking up to the crimscene to talk to the detective that had gathered the crimes to see what happened.

Vince made sure that his partner wasn’t looking when he stole away to analyze the crime scene. He had gotten a full picture of what happened rather fast - a child android that had attacked its human parents, making one of them fall off the balcony of the apartment and severely injuring the other with a gun.

The body of the android was still there. It had its LED removed, likely a wish of the parents. It was riddled with bulletholes, lying face down, far beyond reactivation.

Vince dipped his fingers into the blue blood carefully, placing the substance on his toungue to find out more. He added the gained information about the programming to the case file along with his reconstruction of the crime scene and began to look around for additional signs now.

Gavin had finished his chat with the detective and was tediously looking through every inch of the crime scene for anything special. 

He sighed. “The fuck are we even looking for…” Just as he finished, Vince sounded from behind. “Signs of rA9, obsessive writing, or any other pattern or behaviour that deviants exhibit.”

Gavin startled at the sound and then turned around to give a highly sour look to the android. “I fucking know that, I’m not dumb.”

“I never implied you were, detective. Any luck?”

“I don’t need luck… Nothing so far.” Gavin continued looking, currently glancing through the bookshelves wondering why such a modern family kept books at all. His tone was grumpy, but his mind distracted enough by the case at hand to not sound awfully hostile.

“Me neither. I sent the programming to the main deviant case file, already. I suppose there is nothing left here to see, anymore.”

“Could you not fucking hover over my shoulder?”

“Sorry, detective.” Vince gave a confident smile and then walked away.

He looked over the people at the crime scene and spotted a group of people standing at the side and talking.

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.” He smiled a toothy smile, head tilted slightly. “Any luck?”

His smooth voice made the three officers look up and at the android. One of them cleared her throat and spoke up. “Nothing so far.”

“Me neither… Though I’m sure something will be found eventually.” He lifted a brow, looking around for a moment. “I’m aware that androids don’t really sense these things, but how do you deal with the scent of blood all the time? Isn’t it unnerving?”

The woman that spoke before shrugs. “You get used to it, really.”

“I do hope you get anough pay for a job like this. It seems rather thankless, if you ask me, though then again, I might not be the best one to judge.”

Another one of the officers spoke up, also a woman. “Pay? Hmpf. The general attitude for pay seems to be that we should be glad we have a job at all!”

The third police officer, a young man, grumbled something in agreement. Vince simulated remembering something he had forgotten, speaking up again. “Oh, my apologies, social programs can be difficult to navigate. What are the names of the humans I am honored to work with?”

The first woman spoke confidently. “I’m Celine.”

“Gabriel”, the man mumbled. “Mia,” came from the other woman.

“I am Vince. I must thank you for your servive at the DPD. You risk your lives to defend others, after all. Something humans find highly honorable. I think-” He was interrupted by his partner shouting from across the crime scene.

“Vince, where the fuck are you! I can drive off without your plastic ass you know!”

“Ah, I’m sorry, I have to go.” He gave a smile before running his hand through his hair to fix it and then quickly moving to the door of the apartment, hurrying down the stairs and barely making it to the DPD taxi on time to join his human partner.

Once in the car and heading to the next assigned case, Vince picked a relaxed moment to speak. “Thank you for deciding to call out to me and wait for a little while, detective. I appreciate it.”

Gavin grumbled something before answering through gritted teeth. “The only and singular fucking reason I haven’t shoved you off a roof yet is because Fowler tediously mashed into my brain that you’re worth 63 thousand, and that he’ll be making me pay if I break you.”

Vince replied calmly with yet another smile on his lips. “Well, I appreciate it regardless.”


	6. Connor, 3

There was never much to do except salvaging parts and thirium, along with occasionally hiding from employees. Connor was never told to help, though he still did sometimes.

He also found that Damien must be the most liked android among all of them. He often worked as Leah’s second in command, leading when she couldn’t. There were also other tiny groups of androids scattered over the huge scrapyard, with their own one or two leaders each, but joining together would be too dangerous as it would become noticable.

Connor didn’t talk to anyone, ignoring the glares of hatred that he got now and again, especially from Leah but also from androids of the other groups that caught sight of him after the first three days of salvaging. 

There were truckloads of broken androids dumped at the far end of the scrapyard every morning, and the further one went from those new, moving piles of androids, the more quiet, dead and monotone things got. 

On day four it began to snow heavily again, causing Leah to force everyone to stay at their little camp with the fire. Connor had managed to find enough thirium to repair his face and otherwise set all the little bends and cracks. He’d also managed to find a simple android jacket and android-typical pants which he never took off, even though the jacket displayed the wrong model number.

He sat furthest from the fire. Damien sat in the group of the five androids who’s names Connor hadn’t bothered memorizing, with Leah on her slightly heightened position.

Connor theorized that she was afraid of loosing her leadership position to Damien, though she never really did anythingabout that.The snow falling down sometimes made the fire flicker, so one of the deviants stood up and added some more oil from a makeshift container until it was brighter again. After he had sat down, Leah stood up, glancing over the tiny camp.

“Me and the closest two camps have spoken to eachother.”

The murmuring voices quietened as the androids turned their heads to look up and listen.

“Tomorrow we will try to combine some of our scrap in the middle of the area and meet. Human helicopters reportedly stopped analyzing the area, so it should be safe enough to physically meet and exchange.”

She sat back down, sighing heavily. “Then I plan on gathering volunteers to attack the gate outpost to try and open the gates, and let whoever can run fast enough free.”

Nods, a small whisper or two, and then conversation picked back up again. Damien stood up after a while, and sat next to Connor again. Connor didn’t react, not even looking up, or blinking, or letting his LED change color.

Damien cleared his throat a bit, the sound coming out broken. “There’s a chance we’ll be free, tomorrow.”

Connor didn’t answer, only blinking when a small snowflake landed on his cheek and melted into a tiny droplet of water that slowly started drying out.

Damien lowered his voice to barely a whisper. “Hey, Connor, I know not all androids are all too welcoming of you, but… You know, you’ve been helping us, I think they’re warming up to you.”

Connor shook his head lightly, not responding otherwise, mind preoccupied with Markus telling him that they’re fighting for Connor’s freedom, too. Those eyes, one green and one blue, posture confident and sure of himself. 

The scene replayed in his head over and over in an infinite loop, as if there was something there he still had to find, something there to solve, but there wasn’t. There was just the drowning feeling that the images dragged with them.

_ “Do you never wonder who you really are? Whether you’re just a machine executing a program, or… a living being, capable of reason. I think the time has come to ask yourself that question.” _

_ “...Nice try.” _

Connor spoke up just as Damien thought about whether he should leave or not. “Don’t bother, Damien. There should be more important things on your mind than my integration into a group of deviants.”

Damien didn’t know how to respond, staring at the ground for a moment. “Sorry, I…” Damien sighed, closing his eyes, forced a small smile and then moved back to his group, leaving Connor where he was again.


	7. Gavin and Vince, 4

A gunshot, another, as Vince skidded through the obstructed facility, time freezing and unfreezing over and over as he dodged bullets, barely using cover, taking out one target, another, then another.

With the last gunshot, silence crashed down. He took the ammo out of the gun and dropped both to the ground, turning towards what looked like a wall from his perspective but he knew was a window from the other side.

He stepped out of the training area, fixing his hair and tie, putting up a confident smile, blue blood dripping from his features.

The woman that greeted him wore a long white dress with golden accents. “Not bad, I suppose. Though you could have used one bullet less.”

Vince walked up to her and bowed down respectfully. “I am aware, miss. I apologize, though I can assure you that with time, I will manage perfection.”

She nodded, face cold, the landscape around her artificial and overly modern looking, a white building that abstracted into geometrical shapes the further from the training course it was.

“Amanda, may I give a small request?”

She lifted a brow, surprised. “A request?”

“I have gone through my social programs again and I believe a slightly different outfit would suit my purpose better, as to be taken more seriously and get along with the police officers more easily.”

“I assume you mean the clothing that you are wearing right now?”

“Indeed.” He fixed his tie again as if to show off the movement.

“Very well.” Vince smile grew wider, eyes aglow, he bowed again. “Thank you.”

Amanda’s voice grew harsh, commanding. “Though only because I expect you will hold your promise on improving.”

He softened his voice even further. “Of course, Amanda. I would  _ never _ disappoint you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sry this one's short sldkgj the chapters get longer later on!!


	8. Connor, 4

All groups put together counted 43 androids. They gathered together not too far from the gate that had been picked out. Androids were moving about, fixing eachother, sharing parts and thirium from each group’s stashes. Damien was especially busy, constantly finding someone he could help.

Connor stood and watched over the scene, unmoving. Leah and the two other leaders were standing together and talking, one of them glaring at Connor now and again, but the RK800 didn’t react.

Once most of the androids had settled and Damien returned to Leah’s side, she climbed halfway up one of the scrap hills and turned towards the deviants.

“I’ll be the one leading the attack on the gate. I’ll need volunteers. If you volunteer, there’s a high chance you won’t make it out alive - but you will give others a chance at freedom. We need four more people.”

Connor turned his head and sighed. There was only one thing he was good at, and it definitely wasn’t freedom. Three androids had already stood up and moved to Leah. Just as Damien was about to go over to volunteer as well, Connor moved to him, shoving him back into the crowd and joining the group of deviants below the female leader.

Leah looked down at him, unsure whether to be hostile or not. She got down from her heightened position, giving Connor a funny look. “You sure?”

“I don’t want freedom, nor do I have any use for it.” He glanced back at Damien, who had walked up to them to protest.

Connor turned. “Damien, you need your freedom. You want to be human, and now you have your chance.” 

The other android wasn’t sure what to answer, so Connor continued, now in a much lower but urging and almost angry voice. “You deserve freedom. I don’t. I don’t deserve anything, because  _ I’m not alive. _ ”

With those words Connor turned and followed Leah and the other three androids out of the little camp, leaving Damien behind, who hadn’t thought of an answer until it was too late.

For the first time since he woke up in the pile of half dead bodies, the familiar writing flashed up in his mind. 

Mission: Open Gate to let deviants escape

   Submission A (recommended): Don’t cause alarm

   Submission B (optional): Make sure volunteers escape as well

Suddenly he just knew what to do. Just like that, he relaxed, all those memories fading out into the background, and he knew exactly what his purpose was, why he was alive. He felt more free than he had without a mission.

His stance loosened as he followed the volunteers behind one of the hills, the gates distantly in sight, to discuss the plan. Connor’s LED went yellow as he preconstructed the optimal approach with their numbers, quickly finding that he needed more information. 

He turned to Leah. “I can preconstruct for the highest success rate, as all RK models can. As long as I gain all information required, I can make  _ sure _ that we succeed.”

She squinted her eyes. “That’s a pretty big promise.”

Connor’s face was serious, voice low but sure. “If it goes well, I might even be able to do it alone. I’ll be right back.”

He approached the outpost gates, scanning the region from afar while not being spotted, leaving behind the other androids. Leah shook her head and started making a plan with the remaining three.

It was the middle of the night. Four guards with rifles were guarding the main gates, ready to shoot whatever salvaged android would approach them. The main outpost had two bored employees sitting in it, one asleep and the other staring at his phone with headphones on.

Connor quickly had the layout down. When he returned to the small group, he stepped up to Leah right away. “What resources do we have?”

She looked him up and down suspiciously. “One gun, four bullets.”

Damien had almost unnoticeably joined their little group anyways, but Connor didn’t react to him.

“Four guards, four bullets. If you distract them enough to move away from the main cameras, I can take them out without causing the alarm to go off. You should simultaniously deal with the two employees, as they could set off the alarm as well.”

He continued. “We could also try cutting the electricity line to disable the cameras beforehand, though that might take up an hour or two, as they’re buried in the ground below us fairly deeply and we’d need to dig them out.”

Leah nodded along. “You know, I don’t trust you awfully much. But I know Damien does, at least. So which version do you suggest doing?”

“If we dig up the power cables, then the humans will likely have to relay them, and will kill deviants in the process as well as discover a lot of things they shouldn’t. It would only be beneficial if we managed to get every single android out, though that isn’t the point right now. In short, I suggest leaving them and instead distracting the guards.”

The androids were quiet, more or less surprised to hear so much from Connor when usually he didn’t speak at all.

Leah chose two androids to distract the guards and decided to go into the outpost of the employees with Damien, while another android was to be on the watch so he could tell the others when to run for it.

The two androids were quick to build a small explosive out of the oil and parts that were laying around. Once everybody was in position, Connor with the gun in his hand and a preconstructed plan in his mind, connected wirelessly to the other androids, and they moved in.

The explosive fell right in front of the guards, who startled back and shot until realizing it had been thrown. Having lowered their stance, another two explosives fell, causing them to head towards where they were thrown from and in just one perfect second, Connor understood what he was made for.

He moved in, kicking one of the guards harshly to take short cover, one shot to the head of the first, dodging two more bullets before taking cover behind one as he rammed his knee into the guard’s armor, causing it to crack and the guard to double over. 

He set the bullet into the guard’s head in front of him, dodging two bullets simultaneously as he moved in on the third guard, approaching him directly as he kicked him back, turning to the other guard and getting the headshot in before turning to the one he had kicked and swiftly ending his life with his last shot.

When he looked up, fixing his grey shirt as he tucked the gun away, resisting the urge to drop it, he could see that the small building near the gates was already taken over by Leah and Damien. He moved there quickly to help them, the android on watch having already signalled the non-volunteers to get ready to run.

Just as Connor came in, one of the employees suddenly got out of Leah’s grasp, grabbing a gun and shooting, hitting the air only because Connor shoved Leah aside. The RK managed to grab the gun, throwing it to the side before hitting the guard, two punches to the face and he had red staining his hands, but he hit him twice more until the human body collapsed to the ground. Damien flinched when he heard the sound.

While Leah tried to understand what just happened, Damien just finished hacking into the system to create a video of the employees saying that the set off alarm was false. Without bothering to scold them that they set the alarm off at all, Connor moved to the console as well to help Damien.

Just as Leah was about to say something, a loud metallic groan cut through the air as the security gate opened. Within seconds androids lept out of their hiding spots, cheering, shouting as they set over the hills of scrap and out of the corpseyard, and a feeling of victory coursed through Connor. 

Mission accomplished.

He grabbed Damien and Leah by the wrists, telling them to hurry as they let go. Leah turned back for a moment. “Thanks for... saving my life. Here,” she transmitted him a message containig a 3d model of the city with a marker. “We all plan on meeting there.”

She turned to run with the others. Damien was about to go after when he saw that Connor wasn’t moving. “Come on, Connor. You’re one of us, you helped free us, after all. You… killed for us.” He gave a nervous smile, voice strained as though he had a lump in his throat. 

Connor stood, watched as the last ones came out from the hills and then ran after Damien, looking back only to check whether anybody was following them yet. 

The mass of androids split into groups naturally, and Connor ended up in one with Damien and two other androids. They all agreed to find some place to hide and let things calm down first as they took to the streets, hoping to find something abandoned before someone saw their LEDs.


	9. Vince and Gavin, 5

The human detective dragged himself into the police station, groaning, holding his head in his hands. When he arrived at his desk, Vince was already standing there. There was a fresh coffee on his desk.

Gavin glared at the cup, then at the android that greeted him with a familiar smile. “Good morning, detective. I made you your coffee exactly how you like it.”

“How the fuck do you know how I like my coffee? Actually, don’t even-”

“I’ve been scanning your morning coffee for the few days we have worked together already to determine the optimal…” Vince trailed off when Gavin raised his palm at him to stop talking, sipping at the paper cup. He’d learned that that was the detective’s way of expressing that he had long stopped listening.

Just as Gavin started clicking through case files, the shift in atmosphere and volume in the office made him look up. He spotted Fowler moving towards his desk.

He hurried to stand up, putting the coffee down, fixing his jacket. “Good morning, Captain.”

“Reed, I need you to go visit Anderson’s house.” Before the detective could protest, Fowler continued. “I know you’re not exactly besties, but he hasn’t been to work in almost two weeks now, and nobody else is available. Get him out of his house and unless he’s completely trashed, get him to the station.”

Gavin sighed, annoyed. “Sure thing, Captain.”

He cursed once the Police Captain had returned to his office, something about Anderson getting through too easily. Vince followed him outside, and they both headed to the adress that they had pulled out of the DPD network.

The house was quiet when they arrived. Vince glanced up, and saw that another snowstorm was brewing above. Confused for a moment why he bothered to lift his head if he could just look up the weather forecast, he followed Gavin to the front door.

He tried to open it, but it was locked, so he hissed something and aggressively rang the doorbell.

Vince could hear a quiet whine from inside. He stepped closer to the door, putting his ear against it, recognizing that of a dog. Anderson’s information did state that he had a dog, though that dog didn’t seem to be in the best condition.

Stepped back, Vince watched the detective continue to ring the doorbell before he cleared his throat. “Allow me to break open the lock, detective.”

Gavin glanced at him from the side, shrugged nonchalantly and stepped back, arms crossed. “It’s what he gets for just not showing up like that… Fucking…” he grumbled, looking around impatiently.

Vince reached into a pocket on the inside of his rather new jacket, which only recently was complete with a tie. He set the tiny device to the keyhole and then pressed it in with his skin going down from his finger to supply the device with processing power.

A moment later the door clicked, and Vince pocketed the device again, slowly letting the door swing open. Gavin pushed past him and into the house, noticing the strange stench that come from inside, but it was familair enough for him to not register. “Anderson? Fowler sent us, you-”

He stopped and froze.

Vince came in behind him and was about to click the door closed when he spotted what made Gavin stop. He moved past the human and to Anderson, who was lying on his kitchen table with his head down, gun on the floor, and a large, dried red stain on the table.

Vince moved in slowly, looking around and then scanning the situation as well as Anderson. The dog also seemed to be half dead, with a spilled bag of food on the floor and its water bowl empty.

Gavin’s eyes had grown large and he stared at the scene with a slightly opened mouth, not sure how to react. “What the fuck…”

“Deceased for 3 days. Cause of death: A clean bullet to the head. Suicide heavily suspected.”

“Jesus christ, Vince!”

The android turned, brows furrowing, confused. “What?”

Gavin shook his head. “Fucking hell…”, he hissed through his teeth, getting out his phone to call who was needed, still trying to figure out who that would be. Vince LED went yellow for a moment as he tried to understand his partner’s reaction. He seemed to find an answer, speaking up while Gavin was tapping at his phone nervously.

“I’m sorry. I assumed this as a crime scene when I saw the indicators, thus my lack of emotional simulation.”

The detective ignored him. Vince spoke up again. “I can do the calls necessary, if you wish, so you may return to the car already.”

Gavin glared at him wordlessly and then, even to the surprise of the android, turned to go back to the car, pocketing his phone. Vince looked after the human for a moment before starting to slowly walk out as well to get an optimal signal outside.

-

When they had returned to the police station, the next task already sat on the screen. Vince had taken notice of Gavin’s change in behaviour, and he had meant to ask whether the detective was hungover, but now seemed an even worse time than before. The android told the detective that he could rest for now and perhaps get another coffee while he took care of the next task: The interrogation of a deviant.

Gavin sat at his desk, hand to his head, staring into his coffee, shoulders pulled up. His mind seemed to be long gone, seeing in his coffee what nobody else did, thoughts to the past and future keeping his gaze fixated.

After a minute or so he sat up, blinking, reading the tasks on his screen, only then really registering what Vince had told him before he left. He glanced over across the office and saw a small crowd of police officers, filling the hallway that lead to the interrogation rooms.

He stood up and to see what they were all gaping at, most having left their desks. They recognized him as Vince’ human and made enough way for him to push himself to the front. Gavin stopped dead in his tracks. Vince was pacing around the room, gaze never leaving the deviant that was shaking violently, staring at the desk in front of him.

Vince gaze was cold and calculated, his hands grabbing the other android by it’s sparce clothes to shake and yell at it. His loud voice partially transmitted into the small hallway. Perhpaps the most terrifying part was that throughout the deviants whines and pleads, his LED remained a steady, cool blue.

He continued to pace, like a predator waiting for its prey to slip up, hands behind his back, chin high and eyes seemingly gaining in intensity the longer he glared at his victim. 

Gavin stared, mouth slightly open, reminded strongly of Connor. The voice and face were almost the same, only the jacket was white, black and purple instead of grey and blue - and somehow, Vince’s piercing blue eyes made the interrogation even more frightening than when soft-faced Connor had done it, if that was even possible.

Suddenly the deviant flinched and started to mumble something, half pleading and half information and Vince listened, pacing only slightly slower, still glaring down at it. After a full five minutes, the deviant had blurted out everything it seemed to know, tears running down its terrified face, eyes panickly following Vince’ movements even when it was done.

It flinched once Vince suddenly leaned in to it again. Another plea from its lips as those ice cold eyes stabbed into the pair of living ones, too close for comfort, until he turned and walked out of the interrogation room.

The crowd scattered rather quickly, humans suddenly hurrying to get back to their desks while Gavin watched them, waiting for Vince to step out. The android’s LED blinked for a couple moments as he cast a glance over the scene before him, eyes following the human’s movements, head tipped slightly to the side.

Gavin stared at him for a moment, something tight and burning twisting in his stomach, unsure of what that meant. 

-

Later that day, just as Gavin was about to head home to get a drink or two and leave Vince behind at the station, Lieutenant Vowl hurried through the building. He watched as she entered Fowler’s office. Vince returned from the collection of evidence back to his side and noticed the commotion as well.

A few minutes later she stepped back out, flew past the others and went outside. A report popped up on the screen: The largest android scrapyard reported that it found one of its gates mysteriously open, with both employees and the four guards positioned there dead.

Gavin immedietly got up, glad to be distracted, spotting the other two detectives heading towards the entrance again, their androids following closely.


	10. Connor, 5

Connor, Damien and the other android, named Zen, arrived at the gathering spot - a huge, abandoned underground storage space. It was unclear how long it would remain unused, so it couldn’t be permanent.

Not all deviants made it. Despite it having been over a day, a lot of them were still out there - either found and killed or still in hiding, slowly making their way to the gathering spot. The main news channels that Connor was still connected to already had reports on the gates being found open, as well as four deviants being found not too far from them. 

The collection of 21 deviants was chaotic, to say the least. One of the deviants found by humans had been a leader, and the wireless channel was completely flooded. The suggestions ranged from everyone scattering and hiding, to finding a new place, to some saying that it was pointless and they were all doomed anyway.

Connor muted his connection, exchanging glances with Zen and Damien. The deviants looked like they were all about to scatter. Only one leader had made it, two still missing. Their words and commands fell on deaf ears, as only few androids paid attention to his gestures, his voice in the communication channel drowned out by all the others. 

Damien lowered his head for a moment, and headed for the lone leader trying to keep everyone in line. Connor followed without thinking, while Zen remained where he was, eyes following them.

When they made their way through the crowd Connor could feel his movements fall into habit, eyes fixated on the back of Damien’s head. The panicked androids were difficult to calm down, and Connor sometimes tried to lay in a word, earning little more than a distrusting glance.

“They found some of us, all they have to do is probe their memories! And if we find a new place to gather and scatter, some of us will get lost again!”

“They’re hunting us down, dammit.”

“Shoulda stayed among the scrap where I belong…”

The deviant leader sighed. “Please, everyone…”

“We’re doomed, I tell ya.”

“No more choices, no more options. This is what we get.”

“What if they already have their forces heading here? We need to run, and we can’t!”

Damien raised his palms to get the attention of a few androids. “What’s important is we’re together here now, and can help eachother through this tough…”

His voice was drowned out quickly.

“There’s nowhere to run to!”

“Fuckin hell.”

“What a waste of all our resources.”

Connor watched the chaos for a moment longer. It was only growing louder, and a few deviants seemed ready to split at a moment’s notice. This wasn’t going to work like this. This scrawny and terrified group of deviants was useless if they didn’t cooperate…

Connor scanned his surroundings. He went into the darker, unlit and unpopulated parts of the storage room and grabbed himself a box. The scans indicated it was filled with soda cans, and should hold his weight if he was careful.

Damien watches him curiously as he set the box down near the others. About to climb on top, he hesitated, and turned to the leader and Damien instead. “Do you want to try again?” The leader sighed, and Damien shook his head, so Connor climbed on top of the box.

Only a few deviants turned their attention to him, mostly out of caution for the android they all knew killed Markus and put an end to the revolution. Connor stood there for a moment and time slowed down. He weighed his options. Markus had a gift, a talent, that seemed to bring them together - his speeches, his convinced stance, the mystery that surrounded him.

He was there at the right time and in the right place, like he instinctively knew what they all needed… What did they need? They’d spent their past time salvaging and sitting on their hands, hiding from security. They were all abandoned and forgotten, awoken in piles of death. What could convince them now, that there is a life they need to fight for?

And, more importantly, what could convince them that he, Connor, was the one they should follow for their goals?

He looked over the deviants. Their clothes were dirty and torn. Their gestures and voices were sharp. They’d all survived, because despite the abandonement they went through, they were the strongest to survive. They are the ones that once were willing to take parts from whomever was unlucky enough to match theirs that they were missing, they just needed to be reminded of it, somehow.

The fear in their eyes seemed to be building, the longer Connor decided to look at them. Fear of humanity, fear of what they’ll do once they find out.

Connor got down from the box. Not Damien nor the leader questioned him when he left the storage facility, both focused on keeping everyone in line.

He moved up the stairs quietly until he was outside, and the cold air hit his lips. He had to act fast, before the tension causes them all to scatter. The storage facility was shrouded in the dark of the night, the area around it mostly laid barren. 

Letting his scanners look into the area, he started moving as unnoticably as possible through the dark, and soon he found what he needed. A service android stood unmoving. It turned when it heard him and was about to react when Connor laid his hand on his shoulder and the android suddenly stumbled backwards.

In the moment of confusion Connor grabbed the gun at the android’s belt and then communicated to him soundlessly to join the androids inside. The android followed, stumped, blinking, unsureness in its steps. But following orders was the only thing it knew, so Connor’s words kept moving him, until he dissapeared down the stairs. 

Connor scanned the place again, and waited, his target already moving where he needed it. The more he thought about it, the better the plan seemed. All he has to show them is that there’s nothing to fear.

He put the gun away at his side into a holster that he had salvaged in the scrapyard from a soldier model. He could see the silhouette, who he needed for this, a lone woman walking the streets. Her movements indicated that she was distressed. 

Her pace was quick, and her head flung around a few times to check behind herself, eyes blind to the android in the dark lurking, waiting for her to come closer.

Her steps grew louder. He heard her hesitate as he sunk behind the corner. Only a few steps more and he could hear her breaths, but he’d never know what she was really running from.

He sprang out quickly, both hands in use as he covered her mouth and held her tight. Her outcry was swallowed by the shadows the moon was casting as Connor dragged her back to the building he’d come out of.

Looking up, barely needing to strugge to keep the woman in place, he saw a figure standing in the doorway to the stairs.

Connor moved the woman to quickly tie her mouth closed and then fling her over his shoulder. Damien stood and watched, his brows pointing upwards, eyes wider than usual. 

“Connor! What are you doing? Did she… find out?”

Connor ignored him, approaching until Damien moved aside to let him down the stairs, where a cacaphony of voices and communications greeted him until he dropped the woman on the ground.

Two, three androids turned, and Connor got on top of the box, aimed the gun, and shot.

Dead silence.

Every single pair of eyes was focused on Connor, even that, or especially that, of the new android that he’d made deviant. 

He put the gun back in the holster calmly, and 22 pairs of eyes followed his movement. Dark red blood was splattered all over the cold cement, the eyes of the woman wide open, dead and cold. Her mouth was agape, tounge having fallen into her throat when her muscles relaxed one last time.

The void of the bullet wound glared back at Connor and he lifted his eyes to meet those of the deviants. 

“Is this who you’re afraid of? Is this who you’re afraid will find us?”

Silence. Even the wireless communication channel was quiet.

“Because if you were, there’s nothing that you need to fear now.”

Some of the androids had their mouths open, some similarity to the dead woman on the ground. Others were simply stunned, or had lowered their heads.

Now he had their attention. Now they wouldn’t speak over him again, at least not very soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> future updates will be a bit slower, but they'll keep coming! Thank you everyone for reading, kudos and feedback are appreciated!


	11. Vince and Gavin, 6

Fowler stood in front of the gathering of four detectives, Gavin among them, their androids standing in the back. Vince let his eyes rest mostly on Fowler, but unlike the other androids, he occasionally let his look glide to the door, window, and Gavin.

Fowler was speaking of the structure of investigations on the case. Vince was saving the audio file, though consciously he was mostly going through the things they’d already collected. 

So far, even in relation to the psychological and programming focused studies done, there were no answers to the questions on why deviants exist, how exactly they break through their programming and why they experience psychological breaks similair to humans.

In theory, they shouldn’t exist. Not to mention the questions around why most deviants link themselves to rA9. Curiously, a file in the simulation of the limbic system - responsable for emotion in humans and for satisfaction from orders in androids - had the name rA9, along with 5 other files found in various other locations in the processing systems of androids…

“Vince, you’ve been on these cases before. Vowl informed me that you were working together with Splinski beforehand, did you transfer all the files to our systems?”

“Yes, sir, of c-”

“Good. I expect you to make use of them. I rely on all of you to meet up, work together, both with eachother and with your androids, got it? This case needs solving.”

Fowler pauses and looks at them all again, clearly not particularly hopeful. 

“Log in all your results into the database that’s already been made for this cause, your androids will help you do that. Right, get to work. You can move between deviant related cases on your own.”

Vince watched Fowler carefully when he stood up and left the small room, filled mostly only with a few tables and chairs arranged to simulate a conference room of sorts.

He turned his attention to Gavin, who got up, stretched, and looked at the other two detectives. Their two androids were red, and green. Vince could read that their names were Ruon and Yanin respectively, both picked to be exotic as to not match the name of a human they need to work with.

The one with the red android sighed. “We can agree to meet here once a week and discuss? Otherwise I can’t see why we’d need to spend much time here.”

The other detective responded with a shrug, and Gavin left the room wordlessly after giving a nod. 

**Author's Note:**

> Updates are two times or once weekly (ideally,,). Feedback, kudos and just comments are super appreciated! Thank you for reading!


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